Finance Committee Page 2
January 18, 2017
here to the DPW Admin Bldg. or the library. We support 34 buildings throughout the city. | think part of the
problem too is and | think we can address it in the future is the van has never really had under carriage wash
and it really should have a car wash with an under carriage done. The other part of it too where they are
parking it and I’m going to change that also but they park it in the parking garage where we have that cave.
That area stays wet all of the time. We've had a few instances where one of the guys was driving to the DPW
and the light turned red and he went to hit the brakes and there was nothing. He went to pull up the
emergency brake and it was frozen and rusted. Fortunately there were no pedestrians and traffic and he came
to a slow gliding stop and no one got hurt. That has happened a couple of times within the past year and the
lines and cylinders have been replaced. Right now people are afraid to drive it.
Alderman Siegel
It seems to me that it’s a normal thing to do that the under carriage should be washed. How can we not be
washing our vehicles? | understand the larger vehicles because it’s difficult but we are talking about a
passenger van. That’s not acceptable and we have to change that across the board. Just doing the routine
maintenance should make it last way longer than that. We are going to build a garage on Burke Street to
house things but we can’t count on that as our only solutions for under carriage washing. The price is
reasonable for the van, new purchase is reasonable; it’s the fact that we have to do it.
Alderman Cookson
| echo the same sentiments. This is not the first vehicle that has come before the Finance Committee with rust
issues in the under carriage. The Department of Health had the same issue and that vehicle had 74,000 to
76,000 on it. | don’t know how we justify that to the taxpayers of the City of Nashua, it is a gross negligence of
the money that they have contributed to the well-being of the city and we have to take this and look at the
entire fleet and how it’s being managed and if there are other vehicles that are under the same situation and
we just can’t have this. Hopefully it stops here tonight.
Alderman Siegel
One other thing, you said an employee went and had a problem with the emergency brake and the regular
brake. It happened more than once. If that happens more than once then why does that vehicle on the road?
We were lucky nobody got hurt or killed the first time, what possessed us to have that vehicle on the road?
Director Codaqnone
We repaired it and then new lines were put in and then something else failed.
Mayor Donchess
So the new vehicle we will have under carriage washing and a better place to store it?
Director Codaqnone
Yes, we are going to put a schedule in place to have it washed. The way it was being done was it was getting
washed but it was a regular car wash and not the under carriage. That’s separate. The Streets Department
had a power washer and they washed the vehicle but that doesn’t wash it underneath. We are going to put it
on a regular schedule to have the under carriage done.
Alderman Siegel
That would be cheaper than $23,000.
Director Codaqnone
A lot cheaper.
